Coming off of a rather hectic news week, major Sunday morning news shows are making odd choices for guests to explain the impeachment inquiry against the president. Donald Trump has been accused of trying to pressure the Ukrainian president into investigating former vice president Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who has had business dealings in that country. A whistleblower complaint also claims that the Trump administration has tried to cover up the whole thing, and that this may have been common practice for the White House for some time now.
It’s a scandal touching on corruption, nepotism, abuse of power, and national security, all of which are a lot to unpack. Not that there was much to get from many of the guests on Sunday morning’s shows. On CNN’s State of the Union, Jake Tapper spoke with Republican congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, who repeatedly claimed that the content of the summary of Trump’s call with Ukraine wasn’t accurate and whom Tapper had to repeatedly fact-check on air. Chris Wallace, on Fox News Sunday, spoke with White House adviser and anti-immigrant zealot Stephen Miller, who tried to deflect and re-direct every question Wallace asked. On Face the Nation on CBS, South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham called the whistleblower complaint hearsay, despite the summary of the call and Donald Trump’s own account.
In stark contrast is Robert De Niro’s appearance on CNN’s Reliable Sources with Brian Stetler—the veteran actor was also on air to talk about Ukraine and the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, which is an odd choice considering political commentary isn’t his expertise. But his take was much more direct and succinct than any of the politicians’ above: “This guy should not be president, period.”
Stetler replied, “And when you say that, folks on Fox [News] come after you. I remember the Tonys when you got up there and cursed, a lot of criticism of you—”
De Niro then cut him off abruptly: “Fuck ’em, okay. Fuck ’em.”
From there, Stetler tried to get things back on a less vulgar track, saying, “Well, you know, this is cable, so it’s not an FCC violation, but it is still a Sunday morning.” But Robert De Niro is sharing a lesson worth listening to, for Stetler and everyone else out there: Don’t spend your life worrying what Fox News is going to say about you.
